Global settings - email

The Global settings > Email page enables you to manage the following settings:

• You can change the Name, Email address and Company information that appears in the Email From Address information.
• You can log all outgoing email messages in the Email log.
• You can enter Email headers to add to each email message sent by OpenX.
• The Enable qmail patch setting prevents a known bug in qmail. This bug causes emails sent by OpenX to show their headers within the body text of the email.

Global settings - banners

In the My Account > Global settings tab, an administrator can manage the following banner settings:

See also: Account preferences in the OpenX 2.6 User Guide for information about delivery preferences you can apply at account level.

Banner delivery settings

The global banner delivery settings are:

• Allowed invocation types: If you disable any invocation tag type it will no longer be available as an option when users create zones. See also: Zone tags in the OpenX 2.6 User Guide.
• Banner delivery cache settings: You can change the amount of time (in seconds) that OpenX allows before updating the banner delivery cache. The default value is 1200 seconds (20 minutes).
• Banner delivery settings: You can control the following:
  • Evaluate banner delivery limitations during delivery: This setting is enabled by default. If you disable this option you might experience some increase in speed.
  • Obfuscate channel when delivering ads:  This setting obscures channel information when delivering banners.
  • Allow PHP code in ads to be executed: While it is possible to allow execution of PHP code in ads it should be noted that this represents a security risk.
  • 3rd Party Click Tracking Delimiter: This value is the default delimiter OpenX uses for tracking 3rd party clicks. See also: Third Party Click Tracking with OpenX
• Invocation defaults: To Enable 3rd party click tracking, select which type from the drop-down menu. Available options are:
  • None
  • Generic
  • Rich media doubleclick
  • Rich media OpenX
• P3P privacy policies: P3P privacy policies were introduced in Internet Explorer 6 to guard against unwanted cookies. P3P is enabled by default in OpenX and delivers a compact policy statement that the browser recognises. You can specify a file location for a separate P3P privacy policy if desired.
• OpenX server access paths: Manage the pathnames to the OpenX administrator interface, delivery directories and image directories.
• Delivery file names: Lists the filenames used for banner delivery.

If you change any settings in the Banner delivery settings remember to click Save Changes.

Banner Logging Settings

This section of the screen allows the OpenX administrator to control the different types of raw data that will be logged by OpenX. There are nine different options:

Request, Impression and Click Logging Settings

• Log a request every time a banner is requested
• Log an impression every time a banner is viewed
• Log a click every time a viewer clicks on a banner

These three settings control whether OpenX should log raw requests, impressions, and/or clicks.

Information Lookup Logging Settings

• Reverse lookup the hostnames of viewers when not supplied

This setting performs a reverse DNS lookup of the user's IP address when delivering banners, if the hostname is not already set, so that it can be logged to the raw data tables.

• Try to determine the real IP address of viewers behind a proxy server

This setting causes OpenX to examine the HTTP headers and check if the viewer is coming through a proxy server. If so, the viewer's real IP address is determined and used for logging, if possible.

• Extract the viewer's operating system and web browser information using phpSniff

"Additional Data" Logging Settings

This setting examines the User-Agent string and extracts the information using the phpSniff application, which allows for the targeting of creatives by broad browser descriptions (e.g. using "Internet Explorer" instead of having to match every possible IE User-Agent string).

• Store 'User-agent' data when logging
• Store 'Page Info' data when logging
• Store 'Referer' data when logging

These three settings control if OpenX should store the viewer's browser user-agent string, information about the page the creative was requested/delivered/clicked on, and/or the referring page to the raw data tables when logging creative requests, impressions and clicks (if the logging of these types is enabled).

The "Page Info" includes the logging of whether the page to which the creative was delivered was using SSL or not, the domain, the page itself, and any query strings passed into the page.

The "Referer" is the page that the viewer was on before they viewed the page the creative was requested/delivered/clicked on.

Block Banner Logging Settings

This section of the screen allows the OpenX administrator to control which hosts/clients will or will not result in raw data being logged to the database.

• Don't log any statistics for viewers using any of the following IP addresses or hostnames

If the request comes from one of the IP addresses entered, this setting will prevent raw data (requests/impressions/clicks) being logged to the database.

IP addresses can be entered in any of the following formats:

One IP address per line; and/or Comma separated; and/or Semi-colon separated.

• Don't log statistics from clients with any of the following strings in their user-agent

This setting will prevent raw data from being logged to the database if the User-Agent contains any of the string values entered.

The string values that are entered are treated in a case-insensitive fashion, and should be entered as one string per line.

• Only log statistics from clients with any of the following strings in their user-agent

If the User-Agent does not contain any of the string values entered, this setting will prevent raw data from being logged to the database.

The string values that are entered are treated in a case-insensitive fashion, and should be entered as one string per line.

Banner storage settings

The banner storage settings are:

• Allowed banner types: All banner types are enabled by default. If you disable a banner type it will no longer be available for selection when users add banners to the system. See also: Banner types in the OpenX 2.6 User Guide.
• Webserver local banner storage: You can store banners in a local directory or on an external FTP server. If you change from local storage to FTP storage you must enter host name, directory, login name and password.

Global settings - conversion tracking

In the Global settings > Conversion tracking page you can manage settings for conversion tracking.

• Conversion tracking is enabled by default. Untick the checkbox if you want to disable this feature.
• You can specify the number of seconds to allow for the Default Ad Impression Connection Window when you are using conversion tracking.
• You can specify the number of seconds to allow for the Default Ad Click Connection Window when you are using the conversion tracking feature.

Global settings - database

When you install OpenX you specify which username, password and type of database to use. You can change those settings in the Global settings > Database page. They are stored in the configuration file, and this file must be unlocked to make any changes.

• Database Type: This field contains the database type you set up for your OpenX installation. OpenX 2.6 supports MySQL and PostgreSQL database types.
• Database Hostname: This field contains the hostname or the IP address of the database server.
• Database Port Number: This field contains the port number of the database server. The default port number for a MySQL database is 3306.
• Database Username: This field contains the username to enter when you want to login to the database.
• Database Password: This field contains the password to enter when you want to login to the database.
• Database Name: A database server typically contains a number of databases used for different users and projects. This field contains the name of the database that is set up for your OpenX system.
• Database Optimisation: If you tick the Use Persistent Connections checkbox you can improve OpenX delivery and even decrease the load on the server. However, this option is not suitable for websites with a lot of visitors because the load on the server can actually increase and become larger than when using normal connections. The benefit of using regular or persistent connections depends on the number of anticipated visitors and the hardware you are using. If OpenX is using too many resources, check this setting. Persistent connections are turned off by default.

Global settings - debug logging

In the Global settings > Debug logging page you can enable or disable the Audit trail feature. You can also manage general debug logging settings. See also:  About the audit trail

Use the Debug logging settings to manage:

• Enable Debug Logging is set by default.
• You can Include method names in debug logs.
• You can Include line numbers in debug logs.
• The Debug Log Type is set to File.
• The Debug Log Name, Calendar, SQL Table, or Syslog Facility.
• You can set the Debug Priority Level to one of:
  • PEAR_LOG_DEBUG - Most information
  • EAR_LOG_INFO - Default information
  • PEAR_LOG_NOTICE
  • PEAR_LOG_WARNING
  • PEAR_LOG_ERR
  • PEAR_LOG_CRIT
  • PEAR_LOG_ALERT
  • PEAR_LOG_EMERG - Least information
• The Debug Identification String.
• The mCal, SQL Server Username field contains the SQL server username to use if you are using mCal.
• The mCal, SQL Server Password field contains the SQL server password to use if you are using mCal.

Global settings - geotargeting

Geotargeting databases identify the geographic location of website visitors based on their IP address. Targeting ads based on location can lead to higher clickthrough rates. These are achieved because you can target creatives at the visitors who are most likely to respond. OpenX offers a free MaxMind geoIP database plug-in that will target ads based on the visitor's country and city information. For more complex targeting, such as targeting based on zip or area code, you can purchase and install other plug-ins from MaxMind.

Geotargeting is disabled when you install OpenX. To enable geotargeting

1. Select the Geotargeting option in the My Account > Global settings tab.
2. To enable the free MaxMind GeoIP database, simply select this option in the Geotargeting Module Type field and click Save. It is not necessary to enter a pathname.
3. To enable another MaxMind database that you downloaded, enter the database pathname in the relevant field and click Save. 
4. You can also Save the GeoIP data in the database logs and Show geotargeting delivery limitations even if GeoIP data unavailable. This option makes it possible to view GeoIP delivery limitations for banners even when the data is not being used.

After you enable the geoIP database you can start applying these as delivery limitations on banners. See also: Banner delivery options in the OpenX 2.6 User Guide for information about applying geotargeting as a banner delivery limitation.

Global settings - maintenance

In the Maintenance Settings section, you can:

• The Automatically perform maintenance during delivery if scheduled maintenance is not set up option is enabled by default.
• You can change the Maintenance Operation Interval (minutes) to adjust how often maintenance is performed. OpenX uses this information to calculate delivery priorities. You are unlikely to notice a difference in these priorities for some weeks because OpenX requires several weeks' information before it can make meaningful adjustments to the calculations. It is not advisable to change this value without good reason, or without allowing a reasonable period to elapse before expecting to notice any changes in delivery. 
  
  

  Operation intervals are described in detail in the Priorisation engine developer white paper.

  
  

• The option to Delete raw statistics after processing is enbaled by default. This option reduces the amount of information stored in the database.
• You can change the Grace period before deleting processed statistics (seconds) to reduce (or extend) the amount of time raw statistics are stored in the database before they are deleted.

In the Priority Settings section you can select to Update advertisement priorities immediately when changes made in the UI. Select this checkbox to ensure priorites are updated immediately. When this setting is not selected, advertisement priorities are updated during the next scheduled maintenance.

Always remember to click Save Changes after performing any of the above actions.

Global settings - synchronization

You can instruct OpenX to automatically check for updates to the software. This setting is enabled by default.

Click Save Changes if you change this setting. 

Global settings - user interface

In the Global settings > User interface page you can control various aspects of the user interface and SSL settings.

In the General Settings section you can:

• Enable and disable the user interface, which is set to 'enabled' by default. If you are using multiple instances of OpenX in your installation you can disable the user interface in all instances except the master version.
• Application Name: You can specify a custom name for the application.
• Header File Location: You can enter the location of a header file (JavaScript; HTML) that will be included in the OpenX header.
• Footer File Location: You can enter the location of a footer file to use.
• Name of the custom logo file:You can enter the name of a logo file to use.
• Color of the header foreground: You can specify the colour of the header foreground.
• Color of the header background: You can specify the colour of the header background.
• Color of the active tab: You can specify the colour of active tabs.
• Color of the text in the header: You can specify the colour of the text in the header.
• Use GZIP Content Compression: You can specify the use of GZIP compression.

In the SSL Settings section you can:

• With the Force SSL Access on User Interface setting, you can enforce the use of SSL when using the adminstrator interface.
• You can specify the SSL Port Used by Web Server.

N.B. When logged in as an administrator, if you disable the User Interface and then Save Changes, you will not be able to re-enable the user interface. If you find yourself experiencing this problem, please refer to this page to resolve it.